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No U-Turn

09/19/2006

And another one down, another one gets the bug

As you probably know, I've recently been doing some thinking about why we tri?

It's a funny thing this week's topic because the answer came all of a sudden in an email from my book's publisher.

She sent me the email (below) from Larry who just did his first triathlon in VA Beach. My publisher sent a copy of My Training Starts Tomorrow to him when she heard he was training for a tri.

If you read his email and take a look at the photos you'll clearly see the beginning of a lifelong addictions to the sport of triathlon.

He's definitely caught the bug.

All the classic symptoms are in place. He's got an old bike that he clearly wants (and I would say needs) to upgrade. He did his homework by bringing along a bucket of water for the sand for his feet AND he read my book (this shows he's been thinking about the sport in his spare time).

He almost crashed on the bike which gave him a great adrenaline rush. He likes the transition from the swim to the bike to the run. And most importantly of all he certainly wants (and I know he will) do better at the next race.

I would say that those are the classic symptoms of catching the triathlon bug.

Congratulation Larry on your first race. You did great!

And don't fret about catching the bug. We all have it. It's not so bad once you get use to the lack of sleep.

Please keep me posted on your future races.
From Larry:

I had a blast in the Triathlon! It was an interesting experience to go from one activity to another. The surf was a little tougher than I thought it would be. Out of 725 entrants, 458 completed the event with most dropping out because they couldn’t finish the swim. I swam a bunch of breast stroke instead of crawl because I only practiced breathing on the left side and I kept coming up for air as a wave was coming in. I think I had the oldest bike there.

Wow, what a lot of nice bikes! My time was not too great, 397 out of 458. Here are some photos to give you an inkling of what it was like.

I said I wanted to finish smiling.

Here is my antique bike. I had a bucket to wash my feet at T-1. I think I had the only bike with a kickstand and a back rack.

I did see two other nice new bikes with flat tires. One guy was on the side of the road changing his tire. The other one blew out and the tube came out right in front of me. It locked his rear wheel up (we were doing about 20 mph at the time) and I had to swerve around him.

See how far out the waves were breaking. The buoy was out about 25 yards from shore.

I’m ready to go again. Now that I have a better understanding of what to expect, I would plan to training more for the next one.

The tri book gave me a good feeling about what to expect. I found it very helpful. I liked it where he talks about why is this called a sprint when it takes a long time to complete.

Comments

As you probably know, I've recently been doing some thinking about why we tri?

It's a funny thing this week's topic because the answer came all of a sudden in an email from my book's publisher.

She sent me the email (below) from Larry who just did his first triathlon in VA Beach. My publisher sent a copy of My Training Starts Tomorrow to him when she heard he was training for a tri.

If you read his email and take a look at the photos you'll clearly see the beginning of a lifelong addictions to the sport of triathlon.

He's definitely caught the bug.

All the classic symptoms are in place. He's got an old bike that he clearly wants (and I would say needs) to upgrade. He did his homework by bringing along a bucket of water for the sand for his feet AND he read my book (this shows he's been thinking about the sport in his spare time).

He almost crashed on the bike which gave him a great adrenaline rush. He likes the transition from the swim to the bike to the run. And most importantly of all he certainly wants (and I know he will) do better at the next race.

I would say that those are the classic symptoms of catching the triathlon bug.

Congratulation Larry on your first race. You did great!

And don't fret about catching the bug. We all have it. It's not so bad once you get use to the lack of sleep.

Please keep me posted on your future races.
From Larry:

I had a blast in the Triathlon! It was an interesting experience to go from one activity to another. The surf was a little tougher than I thought it would be. Out of 725 entrants, 458 completed the event with most dropping out because they couldn’t finish the swim. I swam a bunch of breast stroke instead of crawl because I only practiced breathing on the left side and I kept coming up for air as a wave was coming in. I think I had the oldest bike there.

Wow, what a lot of nice bikes! My time was not too great, 397 out of 458. Here are some photos to give you an inkling of what it was like.

I said I wanted to finish smiling.

Here is my antique bike. I had a bucket to wash my feet at T-1. I think I had the only bike with a kickstand and a back rack.

I did see two other nice new bikes with flat tires. One guy was on the side of the road changing his tire. The other one blew out and the tube came out right in front of me. It locked his rear wheel up (we were doing about 20 mph at the time) and I had to swerve around him.

See how far out the waves were breaking. The buoy was out about 25 yards from shore.

I’m ready to go again. Now that I have a better understanding of what to expect, I would plan to training more for the next one.

The tri book gave me a good feeling about what to expect. I found it very helpful. I liked it where he talks about why is this called a sprint when it takes a long time to complete.